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Currently the majority of Child Restraint Systems (CRS) in the UK are approved to ECE Regulation 44 Amendment 03. This focuses on the crash performance of the CRS under frontal and rear impacts and does not include a sled side impact test. Although standards from Australia and New Zealand have for some time contained such a test, they do not include an element reproducing the effects of intrusion. Intrusion is a major factor in serious and fatal injuries to children in CRS. This paper describes a research program conducted to develop a simple side impact test which attempts to reproduce the effects of side structure intrusion on a CRS installed in a car on the struck side. A hinged door was mounted on the Middlesex University test sled, which, when opened contacted a CRS restrained on the ECE R 44 test seat mounted laterally on the sled. The door was opened under impact conditions when it struck an auxiliary impactor at the beginning of the sled deceleration phase.

In the ISOITC221SC 121WG 1 “Child Restraint Systems” an ad-hoc group was created to develop a test standard for side impact protection for children in child seats. This paper shortly sumniarizes the ongoing experience and activities of this ad hoc group, which started in 1993 with an international inquiry at accident research units. Up to now a total database of 139 side impacts with MAIS 2+ injured 0-12 year old children has been analyzed. Focussed on accident investigation, a draft proposal for lateral child impact test standard conditions is being developed. One of the major tasks is to simulate the door intrusion effect, especially where the struck-side sitting child is involved. The paper describes new single-sled test experiments to simulate the door intrusion effect by a hinged door with impactor and a hinged door with mass-spring impact system. Suggestions for further work with side impact test procedures will be included.

EUROSID is the side impact dummy that has been designed and has now been almost completely developed by a group of European research laboratories working together under the auspices of the European Experimental Vehicles Committee (EEVC). It represents a bringing together of components and ideas from the three experimental sided impact dummies sponsored by the EEC1 as part of their Biomechanics Programme. These were produced by APR (Peugeot-Renault), ONSER, and MIRA. This paper describes the evolution of the EUROSID dummy and discusses the advances in biofidelity, the responses of its various components to impact, and the types of measurements it can record.